Interdisciplinary Inquiry

Stanley Krippner releases new book on legendary Native American shaman Rolling Thunder

The Voice of Rolling Thunder

To the 1960s counter-culture, Rolling Thunder was a friend of Bob Dylan, an inspiration for the Billy Jack films, and an activist.

But to the Native tribes he served, Rolling Thunder was a healer, teacher, visionary – and even a prophet.

Saybrook University psychologist Stanley Kripper, a world-renowned expert on shamanism, has teemed up with Rolling Thunder’s grandson, Sidian Morning Star Jones, to produce a book that reconciles the two sides of Rolling Thunder’s life and presents previously unreleased teachings that were preserved by the Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart.

“The Voice of Rolling Thunder: a medicine man’s wisdom for walking the red road” also provides Krippner and Jones’ expert commentary on previously unchronicled stories about Rolling Thunder. It details the way in which the shaman described the signs of encroaching planetary doom 30 years before anyone had heard of global warming, and campaigned for environmental harmony. It also examines witness testimony of unusual, even paranormal, activities reputed to happen around Rolling Thunder.

Richard Clemmer-Smith, Professor and Curator of Ethnology at the University of Denver Museum of Anthropology, calls The Voice of Rolling Thunder “Accessible, authoritative, and an interesting treatise on Native American Healing.” Dr. Leslie Gray, president of the Woodfish Foundation, said “This remarkable book will remind its readers of the mysterious role personal power plays in healing.”